eBay and my alarm clock conspire against me...

For the past week I've been watching an auction online for Panorama Cotton for Mega Drive, it was to end at 8:43 AM CST this morning, I set my alarm to go off at 8:30 so I could snipe it. And what happens?

MY FREAKING ALARM CLOCK DOESN'T GO OFF!!!

I wake up at 9 AM, the auction is over, the ONE guy who bid on it ended up winning the thing, ugh... :mad:

Sorry, I couldn't get to sleep last night until 6 AM because I was anxious to bid on this item. NORMALLY I would've just stayed up to bid on it, but my mom needs me to be at work early today, so I went to bed, figured I'd get up early to bid on it, then go back to bed. Instead, my alarm clock decides to go haywire on me, and now I'm so upset about my "best layed plans" going awry, I can't get back to sleep :(

So here I am at about 10:20, awake off of only about 2 hours of sleep, will have to go to work shortly, and I have nothing to show for it. Ugh...

Again sorry, just had to come on here and vent a little, I think its the first time I've vented on the boards about anything, and I've been here since last August.

BTW, if anyone here has a Panorama Cotton complete and in good or better shape they'd be willing to part with, or knows someone who has one, PLMK. After this morning's debacle, I'm interested in getting it now more than ever. I will trade or pay very well for it :)

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take my aluminum bat and introduce it to my POS alarm clock. :confused: :lol:

Blast that alarm clock into many pieces. DO IT! It's what it deserves.

I can't offer much sympathy for you as I hate sniping.

There's nothing unfair about sniping, you just do it if your good at it and have the timing right. I myself have been sniped on several things in the past. Its when I can't get in my bid at all that really upsets me :mad:

Dagnabit, been up for over 2 hours now and still can't get back to sleep. I'm not gonna be a happy worker-bee at my job today :bang:

If you're worried about getting sniped, why not just bid the amount you're really willing to pay for an item?

Cry me a river... If you didn't snipe, things like this wouldn't happen.

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If you're worried about getting sniped, why not just bid the amount you're really willing to pay for an item?

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Because then Joe Shmo who only thought he was going to bid $20, has the time to decide "Uh, I probably won't see this game for awhile -and RagRed outbid me, but I can spare $10 more dollars" So Joe ends up incrementing his bid ever so slighly higher, until he's over R.Red, and unnececary inflation of the auction has begun.

Early bidding on popular and hard to find items does nothing but inflate the price.

btw Ragnarok, the same exact thing has happened to me twice, most recently with a complete copy of Alisia Dragoon --kinda slept through my alarm 'n missed the auction by like 30 seconds. That really blows!

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Originally posted by el dodo
Early bidding on popular and hard to find items does nothing but inflate the price.

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Actually, I am not sure that's true. Sometimes it's true but other times it's not. It seems to me that sometimes an early bid or two will make the price go higher sooner, and therefor either discourage other bidders or attract less attention which in the long run can keep the price down.

I can never decide whether or not to bid right away or to wait to the last minute. I have had mixed results with both methods, so I think it probably just comes down to dumb luck in the end.

Oh and I think that if you're at the point where you are setting an alarm to snipe it's not worth it. I can understand sniping if you're going to be online anyway. But if the auction ended when I was sleeping I would have just made my high bid and hope for the best. Still, I'm sorry you missed out Ragnarok. :(

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Originally posted by el dodo
Early bidding on popular and hard to find items does nothing but inflate the price.

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Early bidding does nothing but keep the price from spiking in the last 10 minutes of the auction due to snipers. It also doesn't require you to set you alarm clock for 5 AM to catch the end out an auction. If I really want a sealed copy of Contra, I'm going to bid the same amount of money now or in the last few minutes. It also saves others the time of watching the auction for days only to find out that they're not going to have enough money in the last few minutes of the auction.

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Originally posted by sggg
Oh and I think that if you're at the point where you are setting an alarm to snipe it's not worth it. I can understand sniping if you're going to be online anyway. But if the auction ended when I was sleeping I would have just made my high bid and hope for the best.

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Yeah, I thought the same thing about setting an alarm. But of the 10 or so times I've placed a bid and slept on it, I've never won the item -whereas the winning bidder was the person that I had overbid earlier, who had checked in the last hours or minutes and raised what had previously been that persons high limit.
Of course it depends how hot the item is you're bidding on.

I've often seen 2 or 3 people wrestle over bids for days. And for some reason these people start off with max bids like 10 or 12 dollars, then leapfrog each other till the're up to like $60.

n' Keres -sniping allows one to not watch an auction for days. Simply mark down when it ends, and get online in that timeframe.
Think about it: a price spike in the last 10 minutes: If there are those who would go hog wild in the last 10 minutes, and you're suggesting that they all bid early, wouldn't it reason that those extra days would enable those feverish collectors to blow the price up to the point that only the most wealthy can win. -again it depends how rare and popular the item is.
I'm sure you'll have no problem securing a copy of Contra with an early bid -especially since they were rereleased by Majesco a few years back. On the other hand, throw down an early bid for mint SpaceMegaforce and see if you come away with it. I doubt it.
edit:whoops, maybe you weren't refering to Contra HardCorps.